Effective groundwater management can protect the quantity of groundwater and ensure a dependable and affordable supply of groundwater into perpetuity. Proper groundwater supervision and monitoring can also protect water quality to ensure that the groundwater remains suitable for domestic, industrial, agricultural, and environmental uses. Additionally, proper groundwater management seeks to prevent land subsidence, which can damage expensive public and private infrastructure such as, for example, water conveyance, flood control facilities, and water wells. Various contaminants and toxic chemicals can be found in groundwater, such as volatile organic compounds, nonvolatile materials, metal contaminants, and the like. These contaminants can exist in subsurface soil and groundwater in a liquid or vapor phase as discrete substances and may be mixed with and/or dissolved in groundwater and soil gases.
Groundwater monitoring can be utilized for detecting the presence of toxic chemicals and other contaminants in groundwater. Such monitoring typically involves measuring physical and/or chemical properties of groundwater on a periodic basis. Concentrations of the contaminants can be frequently monitored to determine if the concentrations are increasing, decreasing, or remaining in approximately the same range. Monitoring can also be performed at and/or in the vicinity of water supply sources to determine the quality of water.
Groundwater monitoring is typically accomplished by sinking wells and then drawing a number of samples at different locations from the well for lab analysis. Taking water from the well to analyze and distribute the flow in the well must be performed carefully in order to ensure that the sample is a faithful representation of the groundwater. Manual methods have traditionally been utilized for groundwater monitoring. In each of these manual methods, the well must be re-pumped frequently in order to draw a number of groundwater samples, which is a time-consuming and inefficient process.
Sensors such as, for example, MIPS (Membrane Interface Probe Sensors) can be located down a well. Such devices, however, tend to be less sensitive than desired in order to measure toxic chemicals such as trichloroethylene (TCE) below the carcinogenic levels of 5 ppb (parts per billion). The size of the sensors, pressure transducers and other probes utilized by prior art groundwater monitoring systems also limits the minimum diameter of the well in which they are installed.
In an effort to address the foregoing difficulties, it is believed that a need exists for an improved system and method for detecting and monitoring toxic chemical contaminants in groundwater as disclosed in further detail herein.